God's answer in judgment on the nation

The beginning of chapter 15 is an answer to the close of chapter
14; but the instruction and the principles it contains are very
remarkable. Jehovah declares that if Moses and Samuel (whose love
for Israel, and faith in intercession for them, were unequalled
among all the servants of God who had stood before Him on their
behalf) -- if these two beloved leaders of the people were there,
yet God would not accept Israel. Who should have pity on them?
Jehovah Himself forsakes them. From verse 20 we find the true
position of the remnant in such a case: a most touching instruction
for ourselves

Jeremiah's sorrow: the separated position of the remnant

Poor Jeremiah complains of his lot, among a people whose sorrows
he bore on his heart, while at the same time enduring their
causeless hatred. We see in verses 11-13, that he represents the
people before God, but yet that the faithful remnant are separated
from the mass of the wicked. From verse is they present themselves
in this separated position to God, bearing at the same time all the
pain of the nation's wound, even while asking vengeance on the
wicked, the adversaries of the truth. In reply, precise directions
are given for the walk of one who is faithful in such a
position. The word of God, eaten and digested in the heart, is the
source of this position (v. 16). Instead of sharing the spirit of
the enemies and the mockers, who rejoiced in the abominable and
hypocritical state of those who bore the name of God's people, the
effect of the word in the heart was no doubt to separate from this
condition of the people, but to isolate the godly one, as though he
were himself the object of God's indignation, as being himself the
people. The word, which revealed the relationship between God and
the people, and shewed them their privileges and their duties,
caused the faithful to judge the state of the people, and to feel
all the consequences of this state as the judgment of Jehovah -- a
judgment so much the more terrible to his heart from his feeling
how close a band of affection and blessing from God was the normal
condition of the people. "Thou hast filled me with indignation"
(v. 17, 18) is the prophet's language.

God's open door: His recognition of individual faith

In verses 19-21 the precise instructions of God with respect to
this condition are given. God also addresses Jeremiah as though he
were the people whom he thus represented in spirit before Him, and,
at the same time, according to his individual faith. He says, first
of all, "If thou return, then I will bring thee again, and thou
shalt stand before me." This open door -- open till man shuts it --
is always in the ways of God, although He well knows that man will
not profit by it.

Taking account of all that is good

Is this all that is to be done while it is called to-day and the
door is open, to call on the rebellious people to return? No: there
is something else for the faithful to do: and this is the second
leading principle: "If thou separate the precious from the vile,
thou shalt be as my mouth." In the midst of the ruin caused by the
rebellion of God's people, this is the especial work of one who is
faithful, who is imbued with the word. The desire of his soul being
the reproduction of this word, and of the affections of God
revealed in it, can he reject the people in a mass as wicked? That
cannot be. Can he accept them in a condition of rebellion, which is
so much the worse because they belong to God? This he cannot do
either. He must learn to do that which God does -- take account of
all that is good, and, if it is too late to preserve everything,
never condemn that which is of God. The penetrating eye of God
never loses sight of this. The affections of the prophet are fixed
upon it also.

Separating the precious from the vile

But God has His own thoughts, and He acts according to His own
will; He lays hold of that which is precious, owns it, and
separates it from that which is vile. This is not precisely the
judgment of God respecting evil; but when the judgment is imminent
on account of the evil, the energy of the Spirit and the power of
the word lead us to attach ourselves to the good, to discern it, to
separate it from the evil, before the judgment comes. If Satan can,
he will mingle them together. Those who know how to separate them
shall be as the mouth of God. God will do it in judgment by smiting
the evil: in the faithful the Spirit of God does it by separating
the precious from the vile.

Refusal to return to the unfaithful obligatory

The third principle is, that, when once separated from the path
of the rebellious by this spiritual intelligence, there must not be
a moment's thought of returning to them. "Let them return unto
thee, but return not thou unto them." Finally, in this position,
Jehovah will make the faithful like a wall of brass. The rebels,
who boast of being called the people of God, fight against His
faithful servant, but shall not prevail, because Jehovah is with
him. Deliverance is promised to Jeremiah. All this, while having
its immediate application to the prophet, is most valuable
instruction for us in the principle which it contains, to direct us
in similar times. Patience is required, but the path is clearly
marked out. There is always an open door on God's part; the
separation of the precious from the vile makes us like the mouth of
God; a positive refusal, when thus placed, to return to the
unfaithful: such are the principles that God has here
established. The word received in the heart is their source. At the
same time the effect is very far from contempt of the fallen
people; on the contrary, the heart of the faithful takes upon
itself all the grief of the position in which the people of God, or
those who publicly stand as such, are found.